During the Bub last year the Black Lightning had a couple of engine issues that kept the bike from making successful passes. Tuning problems, clutch problems, transmission problems, timing problems, primary chain tensioner problems... you know, the regular gremlins that keep you from getting down the course and setting a record. The last pass resulted in a burned piston and no time left to repair the damage.
Well Hartmut Weidelich, the rider from Germany may have let his mouth overload his.... well anyway Hartmut said he wanted to take the motors and transmission back home and go through everything. His plan was to make the entire combo bulletproof... or actually Bonneville proof as we know it.
So a couple of weeks after we got back, after cleaning up the bike, Max and I pulled the motors and tranny. Hartmut had a friend with a container leaving Oakland full of classic cars headed for Norway. The problem was the container was loading in less than 10 days from the day we started pulling the motors. Lots of international phone calls and calls to the shipping lady in California resulted in the decision to get the motors crated and quickly shipped out west.
Max and I put together a materials list for a shipping crate, Max went to Home Depot, we were to meet the nest morning and get it packed.
Luck prevailed and Ross Powers (mc2032) dropped by the house to check my shop progress (did I ever mention that Ross drew up the plans for my shop addition). He agreed to meet me at Max's in the morning and help.
Well Ross showed up with a pallet and a few chunks of lumber in his truck, not to mention another set of building tools. We cut the pallet down to size and had the motor crated by mid afternoon. Max spent the next day stuffing every nook and cranny with spare parts he wanted to add, and Monday morning we put in the last structural members, screwed the lid down and rolled it (did I mention it weighed about 700 lbs) to the curb. 30 minutes later the FEDEX Freight truck rolled up for the scheduled pickup and the crate headed to Oakland for shipment to Germany.
It took a couple of months for the crate to get to Germany, and a while longer to get through the customs process but the got there. I will post pictures of the progress the Hartmut has been sending back as time allows.
For now all you get is this "back story"